TheSea Stallion from Glendalough, a 30 metre Viking Warship recently featured in a BBC One documentary, has benefited from a 2 million Kronor donation from the Shipowner Carston Brebol Foundation.

This follows an earlier DKK 2m donation, made last year by the foundation. The director of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Tinna Damgard-Sorensen, said “We still have a lot of funds to raise if we are to fulfil our own ambitions for the project and the voyage, so the wonderful donation from the Shipowner Carsten Brebol Foundation will not make us stop fund-raising – it just gives us all tremendous motivation to make more efforts to find the rest of the money. We know it’s out there somewhere!

1.9 million people tuned in to a BBC Timewatch programme charting the Sea Stallion’s progress as it sailed from Roskilde in Denmark to Dublin in 2007. The Viking Ship Museum has announced that the vessel will leave Dublin on 30th June this year and return to Roskilde, via the south coast of England.

Since the programme aired, the Sea Stallion has received many invitations from ports and harbours along its homeward route – but as Louise Kaempe Henriksen from the project explains, “a lot of sailing clubs and other organisations underestimate the size of the Sea Stallion and its crew.” It was often a challenge on the outward leg to find sufficient space to pitch tents for the vessel’s 65 crew – not to mention a big enough berth for the ship herself and her support vessel. “We already know now that we cannot visit everyone who is inviting us this summer. And it won’t be easy to sail past the many open arms – but it is fantastic to experience such hospitality!”�

To find out more, visit the Sea Stallion’s website